The Soldier

I wrote this story a little while ago and I thought it will be nice to share. Hope you like it. Special thanks to my friend, Enuamaka for help with editing the story for me.

He had been in Afghanistan for the last three months. There were good days and there were bad days. There were days when the sun was shining, leaves were falling and all the other soldiers were laughing. Nobody died on those days and he loved days like that.But there were days when he felt like a dead man walking.

On those days, the stench of death was in the air and he just wanted to be home. Monday happened to be one of those days.On Monday, he woke up feeling optimistic. Monday would be a good day because all the signs of a good day were there. Nothing could go wrong. Or so he thought.

As the day wore on, he couldn’t help but feel uneasy, as though the calm would not last for long.On this day, he was assigned patrol duty. He was to go get patrol with seven other guys from his platoon. He did not mind patrolling. So, he was up to it but this uneasy feeling just kept creeping up and he was not sure what to make of it.

After breakfast and a good laugh with his friends, he got fully dressed and headed to the patrol car. There were two. He was going to be in the second vehicle with three others while the first vehicle was going to be leading. He got in and they started to move.

He was having a good time singing with his mates and having a nice time until…the vehicle in front of them exploded.It was an IED. There were no survivors. The men in his patrol car drove back to camp as fast as they could. They knew there was nothing they could do in that moment for their fallen brothers. He was shaken up.

As soon as he got back to camp, he went to a corner to be by himself. After he puked out his breakfast, he cried. This was one of those days.Later that day, he felt this strong need to call home. So, he stood in the line waiting while the other soldiers ahead front of him spoke on the phone. As he waited, he thought about his mother and his sisters. He thought about how he missed them and wanting to let them know he was alright.

When it was his turn, he did not call his mother or his sisters. Instead, he called her. He loved his family but she…she was the calm to his storm. She was the one that made him feel like everything had not completely fallen apart and besides, he knew that she would reach out to his family for him.

He had had a bad day and all he wanted to do was hear her voice. When he heard her say ‘Hello’ on the other end, he knew. He knew that in that moment, that everything was going to be alright.